Death is Never the End
by Chibi-Kogitsune
Summary: It's been a month since Ichigo regained his powers, and his Hollow is acting strange. At the same time, Ichigo realises that it's getting harder to enter and exit his body. On top of that, he keeps getting sick! what the heck is going on? Rated T for foul mouths. Might change the rating later, though.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo, people! Yes, I am not dead. In regards to my other stories; I HAVE HIT WRITER'S BLOCK IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM BAR ****An Old Friend**** TT^TT I will try to update as soon as I can though, and I can say that the writer's block has started to let up—I'm starting to get more ideas on what to do with ****Natsume and the Shinigami****, although I am taking sugestions as to what pranks Renji pulls on Natsme and co. trust me, the wackier the better! Oh, and ****When We Stand Together**** is up for adoption, for anyone that's interested. I've completely forgotten whatI was goint to do with that fic, so yeah. Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

It had been nearly a month since Ichigo had regained his powers, but he had yet to enter his Inner World. He continued to cleanse any Hollows that strayed into Karakura, and sometimes if Rukia's schedule allowed it, she would come down and help him with any overly-strong Hollows that showed up—well, that was her excuse anyway. Really, she just wanted to be in Karakura. It had become a second home to her, in a way—the one that had treated her as her own person for the first time in nearly forty years. The one that had accepted her without question, even when some discovered that she was not human, they had accepted her; accepted that she had her faults, as did every other person, that she had likes and dislikes, her strengths and weaknesses, that, even though she was a Kuchiki by name—a noble, she was her own person. And no fancy name, grand mansion, or fortune would ever change that. Karakura gave her a freedom that she didn't have in Soul Society, what with her position, as well as her Kuchiki status, that she had to uphold. It was what she had been longing for, and Karakura gave her that.

Earlier that day, Rukia had approached him, saying that she wanted to speak with him alone. That of itself was quite unusual; usually when Rukia wanted to tell him something, she could give a damn about those who were listening. 'If they hear something they shouldn't have, I can just use the memory replacement' had been her reasoning. So for her to want to speak alone, it had to have been quite significant. And significant it was: she had finally gathered up the courage to tell Ichigo about the previous Fukutaichou of the Thirteenth Division: Shiba Kaien.

**~flashback~**

Ichigo and the rest of the gang were on the roof of the school building eating lunch (or at least trying to—Rukia still hadn't gotten the hang of opening a juicebox) when Rukia suddenly set down the stubborn box, seemingly in frustration, and then turned to Ichigo with a fierce determination in her eyes.

"Ichigo,"

". . . Yeah?" Ichigo replied, slightly unnerved by the look she was giving him.

"We need to talk."

"Uhh, ok, fire away then."

She sighed, "I meant alone."

"Oh," Ichigo blinked, _that was unexpected . . ._ "ok,"

Rukia stood up, making her way to the stairs, knowing that Ichigo would follow. She weaved through the hallways, and out into the front of the school. She then passed though the school gates and headed in the direction of the Kurosaki Clinic.

"Oi, Rukia, why'd you drag me here? We have school!" Ichigo exclaimed exasperatedly as he caught sight of his house.

"Speak for yourself, idiot."

"Shut up, Midget! Just answer the stupid question!"

Rukia whipped around to face him, "I brought you here because it's something private, and I only felt like telling you. Happy?"

"No, just more confused."

"Idiot" she huffed and turned around, stalking into the house.

They snuck through the living room, careful to avoid alerting Ichigo's hyperactive father to their presence (even though he could probably feel their reiatsu anyway, but it never hurt to be quiet). Once they were in Ichigo's bedroom, he whirled on her. "Ok, Rukia, what is it you want to tell me? What is _so_ important that you can only tell _me_, huh?"

Rukia sighed, "It's just something I've wanted to tell you—_should_ have told you a long time ago, but I was afraid of how you would react—"

"Well, there's only one way to find out, now isn't there?" Ichigo asked rhetorically in a sarcastic, yet somewhat soft tone. He of all people should know what she was talking about; he had Hollow powers and a Hollow alter ego populating his Inner World for crying out loud! "But answer me this first," he continued on, "why did you think I would be afraid? You know I'd _never_ be afraid of _any_ of my friends! Sure, I might not approve of what they do sometimes, but then again, what they do is _their_ choice, not mine."

"It wasn't so much a 'I hope he's not afraid'," she admitted, humbled by Ichigo's words, although Hell would have to relocate to Antarctica before she admitted that, "really, Ichigo, it was more of a 'what will he think?'"

"Well, I've already given you the answer to that one: I won't judge you; you know that. I won't be afraid of you; hell, if I was afraid of you I wouldn't dis your practically non-existent drawing skills and call you a midget on a daily basis now would I? I'm not that sorta guy. You know that."

Rukia smiled internally as she felt the warmth that constantly surrounded Ichigo envelop her. It was the same warmth that she had felt from Kaien-dono all those years ago, the feeling of unintentionally putting your hand into the sunlight, and it helped her make the decision. Taking a deep breath, she began her story, from the beginning of her time as a Kuchiki noble, to the night that would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. . . .

She told him about how the other division members had treated her like dirt, thinking that she only got into the division because of her newly found Kuchiki heritage, and how that _had_ been partially true. How Kaien had been the one person to treat her indifferently to anyone else—something that she had unknowingly been longing for; Kaien had given her the sense of belonging that no-one else would. She told him how Kaien had trained her; helped her to achieve Shikai, had praised her, when no-one else would. She told him about Kaien's philosophy, the meaning of The Heart and she told him about his wife, Miyako, the previous third seat.

"I idolised Miyako-dono, looked up to her as much—if not more—as I did Kaien-dono, but then one night, Miyako-dono didn't come back from her mission . . . alive, that is."

"So, she died? Man that must've hit him hard. . . ." he didn't know why, but as he listened to Rukia's retelling of Miyako's death, he felt a twinge of sorrow deep within his chest. Why that was, he didn't know—but he was pretty sure the weather was overcast in his Inner World.

"It did, and he asked—no, _demanded_ that Ukitake-taichou let him kill the Hollow responsible—and he complied, if for no other reason than for Kaien to find closure in the Hollow's death. Ukitake-taichou went with him, and for some reason, he brought me along too. The Hollow's name was Metastacia, and it had a special ability: the first Shinigami to touch its tentacles each night lost their Zanpakuto. You would lose all communication with your Zanpakuto; it would be as if they had never existed."

"Y-You mean that—that his Zanpakuto was—? . . ."

Rukia made a sound of agreement, her voice now taking on a monotonous tone, almost as if she were running on auto-pilot. "Even so, he kept fighting. He used Kido to attack and defend himself, with Nejibana now gone. He held up for a while, but it was clear, even to a freshman Academy student, that he was fighting a losing battle. I wanted to intervene, to help him, but Ukitake-taichou stopped me. He told me that there were two types of fighting; the fight to protect life, and the fight for pride. He told me that Kaien-dono was fighting for his pride; for Miyako-dono's, for Nejibana's. He said that, were I to intervene, even if his life was saved, Kaien-dono's pride would suffer."

Ichigo was suddenly reminded of his fight with Grand Fisher, how, as he fought, he knew he was losing, and yet he would not back down—_could_ not back down, for fear of being unable to face his mother if he lost.

"But Metastacia had a second ability; it was able to enter a Shinigami's body and fuse with it, eating the unfortunate soul from the inside out." She took a shaky breath, stealing herself for her next sentence. "It used its ability on Kaien-dono—fused with him, and then attacked Taichou. He told me to run, to get out of there, and I did, cursing myself the whole way. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but as I was running, I felt a glimmer of Kaien-dono's reiatsu floating amongst the Hollow's. He was still in there, trying to fight his way to the surface. I turned tail and ran back the way I had come. 'Kaien-dono's still in there' I thought 'there might be a way to save him' but by the time I made it back to the clearing, his reiatsu was gone, swallowed up by the Hollow within. I can't exactly remember when I had drawn my sword, but as the Hollow possessing Kaien-dono charged at me, I brought it up out of habit, because I was so used to him doing so in our training sessions together. But I had forgotten; Kaien-dono no longer had Nejibana—he was weaponless." Rukia's voice broke as she continued her retelling, "But I had realised this too late, and Kaien-dono was . . . already on the end of my blade. During the last moments of his life, he regained control. He thanked me, for freeing him from the Hollow; he thanked Taichou, for letting him fight at all, when he could just as easily refused. And . . . he left his Heart with me."

Ichigo glanced at Rukia, and saw that she had a look of forced confidence in her eyes, as if she was putting on a brave face for his sake. _Of course,_ he thought_ if this Kaien guy was as she says he was, then his death holds the same significance for her as mum's death does for me. It'd be hard on anyone, to relive those memories willingly._

"Rukia," he said, his eyes hidden by his hair "you can put on a brave face; you can act as if you're fine, but you can't keep it from your friends, from your family. You'll only end up hurting yourself and those you care about. Trust me, I know from experience—and learned it the hard way. It's ok to show weakness off the battlefield, you know. Just as long as you can hold your own in a fight, you're allowed to cry. It's not a crime." Rukia stared at him; she knew he kept his emotions under wraps, hidden behind his constant scowl, and she knew all too well how he would put on a fake smile and a brave face for his friends, even if it was taking all of his strength to stay upright. She knew she did the same thing at times, smiling when inside all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry, yet she had not once considered how her actions affected her friends. When Kaien-dono had died, she thought that if she put on a smile that things would be ok, but she had been selfish; she said so herself that Kaien was well loved by all of the Thirteenth Division, and even members of other divisions, Ukitake-taichou cared for him like a son, not to mention his siblings. She had foolishly thought that she was the only one hurting, yet all she had been doing was hurting those around her. _I'm such an idiot . . . _

Silence reigned as the two became lost in their respective memories. Then, without preamble, tears found their way down Rukia's cheeks. Ichigo, unprepared for this uncharacteristic show of emotion, was stumped. Curled up in a ball on his bed trying to hide herself, she looked so . . . _small_, and for reasons unknown, she reminded him of Yuzu, as crazy as the prospect seemed. Possessed by a sudden inexplicable urge, he placed his hand on top of her head and gently ruffled her hair. (He was secretly surprised that she didn't try to lop the appendage off for it.) "C'mon midget," he said quietly, "everyone's allowed to have a few tears now and then; people won't think any less of you."

They had stayed that way for another five minutes, and then she left, claiming she had paperwork overdue.

_Pfft. Yeah right._

**~flashback end~**

Ichigo sighed and flopped down onto his bed, not bothering to get changed—he wasn't planning on sleeping yet, anyway. His brain still hurt from all the thinking he had done today; about Shiba Kaien, about what happened to him, whether or not he was Kaien's current reincarnation, like everyone undoubtedly thought he was, or not . . .

Zangetsu was being eerily quiet; in fact, he had not heard so much as a 'hn' from the reclusive spirit since he had regained his powers, to say nothing of his Hollow. As a result, Ichigo was curious. Why were the usually chatty occupants of his Inner World being so tight-lipped? Ichigo, as we all know, was not one to just sit around waiting for answers, so he entered his Inner World to find it much the same—the same sideways skyscrapers, the same sky, the same sideways clouds. As he let his gaze wander, Ichigo was overcome by a sense of melancholy, mixed with a sense of belonging. _This_ was where he belonged. _This_ was what defined him as a Shinigami. _This_ was why had wanted to regain his powers. The quiet companionship of Zangetsu mixed with the most-of-the-time-friendly banter with his Hollow—_that_ was what he had missed. The only things missing from the picture now were the two spirits in question.

"Well, that explains their silence but, where the heck are they?" Ichigo asked to no-one in particular.

**"****Right here****"** Ichigo yelped and jumped six feet in the air, turning to glare at the offending party as he tried to slow his heart which seemed intent on leaping from his chest and running around like a headless chicken. Zangetsu looked as impassive as ever, although his eyes glinted with silent amusement. Ichigo's Hollow however, was not so good at hiding his emotions. He was bent over double, pointing a finger at Ichigo and cackling like a maniac, which—Ichigo thought with a smirk—suited his personality quite nicely.

Deciding that he'd had enough of hearing the Hollow's laughter, Zangetsu smacked him around the head with such force that it knocked him to the ground. Turning to Ichigo, who was gaping slightly at this uncharacteristic show of violence from his Zanpakuto, he gave the tiniest of smiles. "It's good to see you again, Ichigo."

"Right back at you, Ossan."

During this time, the Hollow had picked himself off the ground. Dusting himself off while giving Zangetsu a dirty look, he turned to Ichigo. **"Aw, c'mon King, no 'good to see ya' for me?"**

"No."

**"What? C'mon,"**

"No."

**"Why not?"**

"I said no."

**"Dat's not a reason."**

"Well it is in my world. Unfortunately for you, you live in my world, so there."

**"What the fuck? That ain't logic!"**

"It is now."

**"Fuck you."**

"Please don't"

**"Just say it!"**

"No"

**"Say it"**

"No"

**"Say it"**

"No"

**"Say it"**

"No"

**"Say it, say it, say it, say it, say it, say it say it say it say it say it sayitsayitsayitsayitsayitsayitsay—"**

"ALRIGHT ALREADY! I'LL SAY THE GODDAMN SENTENCE, SO JUST _SHUT UP!_"

**"Success!"** The Hollow said as he did a fist pump.

Ichigo sighed "Good to see you, Hollow."

A flicker of . . . _something_ showed in the Hollow's eyes, and then vanished so quickly that Ichigo wondered if he had imagined it. The Hollow smirked **"You too, pussy."** He said, acting as if nothing had happened.

"No matter where you are, whether you have your powers or not—"

**"Even if dis place fills up like a fish tank"**

"—_thank_ you for your input, Hollow—"

**"Ya're welcome."** He said smugly. This time, Ichigo didn't miss the flicker. Ichigo recognized that emotion, yet he couldn't quite place it.

"—as I was _saying_," Zangetsu continued, giving the Hollow a dirty look, "no matter what happens, we'll have your back, Ichigo."

"Thanks,"

**"Ya're welcome."**

"I wasn't talking to you!" Ichigo sighed once more, "I'll be back. Promise." He said as his Inner World began to fade.

**_Next time, don' quote Arnold Schwarzenegger._**

_Shut. Up._

After giving his hollow an internal death glare, Ichigo heaved a sigh of relief. Zangetsu was safe, as was his Inner Hollow. When he thought about it, the argument he'd just had with his Hollow reminded him of the ones he'd have with Renji, which meant that . . . well, he wouldn't exactly say they were _friends_, more that they tolerated each other more than they had before.

But onto slightly more pressing matters: why did his Hollow almost flinch every time that he or Zangetsu addressed him as 'Hollow' or 'My Inner Hollow'? Even now, as he was thinking this, a twinge of _something_ was felt through the connection he shared with the Hollow. He _knew_ that emotion; he couldn't name it, but he _knew_ it. And he knew for a fact that it _wasn't_ instinct, the only thing the Hollow claimed to feel. _Well, that was one big fat _lie_._ Ichigo thought to himself. _But . . . what is that emotion? I recognise it—I've felt it before, so why can't I place it? _Ichigo raked his brains for a nametag to place on the 'new' emotion, and just as he was about to abort his impromptu mission, he suddenly found one that, at least partially, fit: sadness. There was something else woven into the sadness, but what really got him was _why_ exactly his Hollow would be feeling sad. The guy had a psychotic grin practically engraved in his face! What in the four worlds would make the battle-happy bastard sad? He once again started to analyse the emotion; there was something else there, something other than sadness. This time Ichigo had no trouble at all finding the nametag for _this_ particular emotion; he knew it all too well—he'd felt it when he was little and the other kids teased him about his hair colour, or called him a mummy's boy, or a baby when he cried as he was knocked down in Karate—it was hurt.

Ichigo realized that, even if he denied it with all his being, the Hollow wanted a name, or maybe already _had_ a name but was waiting for Ichigo to discover it, like Zangetsu had. But what kind of name would an Inner Hollow—there! Yet another twinge! _Ok, that's it. Stop being such a misery guts and spill it!_

**_. . ._**

_Oi! Bastard, answer me!_

**_. . ._**

He needed answers, _now_. Ichigo pulled himself back into his Inner World, to find Zangetsu nowhere in sight, and his Hollow, standing in front of him, the maniacal grin replaced by a piercing gaze. He had only ever seen his Hollow this serious once before; when he was trying to learn the Final Getsuga Tenshou. As he continued to stare at the Hollow, he noticed that Zangetsu's white counterpart, the reversed Zanpaku-to, was not in its usual place on his back. His snowy counterpart was completely unarmed, yet another oddity, considering the fact that Ichigo didn't know any Kido whatsoever.

**"I was wonderin' when ya'd figure it out, Ichigo."**

"Ok, now I _know_ you're serious. You _never_ call me Ichigo." Ichigo stated, a bit incredulously.

**"And why wouldn' I be?"** the Hollow asked, quite bitterly. **"Do ya have ****_any_**** idea ****_how_**** long I've waited for ya to realize that I've bin ****_lying_**** to ya this ****_whole time?_**** I've bin here longer dan Zangetsu, ya know. And mehbe ya're right, mehbe I ****_am_**** a Hollow, but jus' like every otha Hollow that ever existed ****_I became one!_****" **the Hollow said, gaining volume as he went until he shouted the last three words.

"Wait wait wait," Ichigo said, holding a hand up as he began to process what the Hollow had just told him. "So you mean that you're _not_ the Hollow version of me? You're _not_ what I would have become had I not succeeded in the Shattered Shaft?"

**"No," **the Hollow said, suddenly sounding very tired. **"'m not. Dose sev'n-een months that ya didn' have any power, it gave me time ta think—ta dig though my ****_own_**** mem'ries, 'nd I found answers."**

"So . . . who are you then? You have a name, don't you?"

The Hollow scoffed **"Ya already know m' name, genius."**

"How am I supposed to know your name if you've never told— . . . oh . . ." Ichigo groaned and felt like ramming his head into the nearest solid surface. "Oh, for the love of all that's holy: why _this_ again? Zangetsu did the _same damn thing!_"

**"Idiot, tink about what ya jus' said."**

"What? That you're doing the same thing as . . . Zangetsu . . ." Ichigo trailed off, comprehension showing in his eyes. "Wait, you're not saying that you're—?"

**"Mehbe I am, mehbe 'm not. D'pends on how ya interpret it."**

"Great." Ichigo grumbled, "Now you're _talking_ like Zangetsu!"

**"How 'm I talkin' like Zangetsu?"**

"You were speaking in riddles!"

**"Was no'!"**

"You were too!"

**"Was not'"**

"Were too!"

**"No I wasn'"**

"Yes you were"

**"Wasn'"**

"Were"

**"Wasn'"**

"Yes—"

**"No"**

"Yes"

**"No"**

"Yes"

**"No"**

"Enough!"

**"**Z**a**n**g**e**t**s**u**!**!**" they both cried in unison, whipping around to face the sword spirit, both having the grace to look at least a little sheepish.

"Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yes."

". . ."

**". . ."**

"I believe you wanted to talk to Ichigo about something?" Zangetsu said, glancing pointedly at Ichigo's carbon copy before vanishing and reappearing a ways off on top of his favourite flagpole.

**"Er, right. . . ."** an awkward silence ensured, until Ichigo decided to break it.

"Ok, so you were originally an ordinary soul—"

**"Not dat I'd ****_ever_**** be ordin'ry: 'm ****_far_**** too awes'me for ****_dat!_****"** the Hollow said jabbing a thumb to his chest and giving a very self-satisfied smirk.

"Egotistical maniac . . ."

**"Why thank you!"**

"It's not a compliment, jerk, but yeah, so you were originally a soul, just like everyone else, and then . . . ?"

**"Well, in all honesty, I was a Shinigami. Fukutaichou, 'f I rememba corre'ly."**

"Wait, _what?_" Ichigo burst out, staring incredulously at his carbon copy.

**"Really? Izzat so 'ard to b'lieve?"**

"Uh," he coughed, "yeah? Wait, do you remember which division you were in?"

The Hollow appeared to think for a moment, before replying **"I tink it was Thirteen, but I can' be too sure . . . I rememba how I died though—the secon' time, at least."** He said, his voice mellowing out.** "I was consum'd by a Hollow."**

_Wait, hang on . . ._ the cogs started turning inside Ichigo's head, the pieces sliding into place as if part of a huge jigsaw puzzle. _He was—or at least thinks he was—Lieutenant of the Thirteenth division, was killed by a Hollow . . ._ "Shiba Kaien," he breathed.

**"Bingo!"** the newly dubbed Kaien sang. His face then darkened metaphorically; **"Now, let's 'ave sum fun, shall we?"**

Ichigo had almost no time to react before the white Zangetsu came crashing down on his. "What the hell, Hol— Kaien?!" he yelled over the screeching of metal against metal, stumbling slightly over his counterpart's name.

**"So, ya guessed m' name, good for you! If ya wan' any more info ya're gonna have to beat it outta me!" **Kaien said as way of an answer, his voice once again taking on the familiar maniacal tone.

"Fine. If that's what you want," Ichigo said, raking his hand over his face and summoning his Hollow mask **_"That's what you're gonna get!"_**

Kaien laughed, **"****_Now_**** ya're speakin' my languich! How bout we take it up a notch?"**

**_"Your funeral, then. BAN—!"_**

**"—KAI!"**

And so, the battle began. Although as they fought, Ichigo began to suspect that Kaien wasn't fighting to kill, or even fighting to win. As yet another off-target Getsuga Tensho flew past him, it became obvious—Kaien had never been off target any of the times the two had crossed blades—Ichigo always had to dodge out of the way or otherwise risk being blown to smithereens. He was stronger than Ichigo—used to flaunt that information around like a banner before, but now . . . he didn't know. Maybe it had to do with the 'thinking' that Kaien had done over the past seventeen— no, it was eighteen now, months.

The twin Zanpakuto slammed into each other once more, electing sparks from where the blades clashed. They stayed locked in a stalemate for what seemed like an eternity, then, both pushed away, landing a fair ways apart. No words were spoken—no taunts, no refutes, no insisting that one was stronger than the other—nothing. Then, by unspoken agreement, they leapt at each other again, each Tensa Zangetsu charging a Getsuga Tensho. Both released their respective Getsuga's in tandem, the attacks cancelling each other out. They then used the resulting smoke cloud as cover for their next attack, but as Ichigo came out of the cloud, he was unprepared for the sight of Kaien, sword by his side, not even bothering to block Ichigo's impending attack. Time seemed to stand still as Ichigo realised: he was going too fast to stop now; all he could do was maneuver Tensa Zangetsu so that it would hopefully miss any vitals. As the obsidian sword pierced flesh, a black substance burst out from the exit wound, covering Kaien with Ichigo's reiatsu, like the time they had fought under the Vizard's discretion. Ichigo watched, frozen, as Kaien smirked at him as the reiatsu crept up his neck, considerably slower than it had last time. But this smirk, he noticed, was not the bitter, mocking smirk that usually adorned his face, but a gentle, humorous one. His eyes also lost their scornful gaze; Kaien now looked at him in a way that was akin to the way Zangetsu sometimes did, only reinforcing what he had been telling him from day one; that he _was_ Zangetsu, in some way shape or form. Kaien's smirk widened as the black reiatsu engulfed his face, effectively cocooning him in reiatsu.

But instead of dissolving him into reishi, like it had last time, not a minute after it had engulfed him, the reiatsu began to recede, like a returning tide, to the puncture wound in his stomach. As each feature became uncovered, Ichigo realised that the reiatsu had changed his Shihakushō and hair from white to black, his skin from ashen to tan; a black tattoo now on his left forearm. Ichigo recognised it from the patterns that had decorated the pants of Ganju's ridiculous battle outfit—he figured that it was the Shiba family crest. Kaien's hair had also grown slightly, more so at the back than anywhere else, giving him a slight mullet. He'd also grown another two centimetres, by Ichigo's reckoning. He deftly removed Tensa Zangetsu from Kaien's gut, careful not to aggravate the wound any further, but to his immense surprise as soon as the sword was out, the reiatsu which had surrounded the wound like a bubble engulfed it, healing it almost instantly. Kaien's Shihakushō—which had now degenerated down from Ichigo's Bankai uniform to the standard version—was somehow repairing itself so that it looked as if there had never been a wound in the first place. Dismissing his mask, Ichigo continued to gape at Kaien's sudden transformation.

"Huh . . ." Kaien muttered. He then stopped, placing a hand on his vocal chords. "I got my voice—my _real_ voice—back," he then glanced at his left arm, and stumbled back while letting out a very loud squawk. _Like he's never seen it before . . ._ Ichigo thought sweatdropping. "I—hahah . . . I'm back to, well . . . normal! I'm me again, not some carbon copy, but _me!_"

"Ah, yeah that's great and all but—"

"Look!" Kaien stuck his foot out to Ichigo. "My tabi are white!"

"I know but—"

"My Shihakushō's black!"

"I know"

"My tattoo's back!"

"I know"

Kaien stuck his tongue out "My Ton'th not boo!"

"What?"

He reeled in his now pink tongue. "My tongue's not blue!"

"Yes, I know"

"I grew!"

"_I know_"

"My hair's black!"

"_I know_, Kaien."

"Ok, I think that covers just about everything! You were saying?"

Ichigo sweatdropped; then shook himself mentally and voiced his question. "So, does that mean that I'm your reincarnation?"

"Yep!" Kaien turned to Ichigo, the grin on his face so large Ichigo wasn't sure how exactly it fit on his face. "This is me! I'm back to normal!"

"I noticed . . ." Ichigo muttered, he then sighed as Kaien completely ignored him, starting to check himself all over again, as if making sure everything was there and in its right place. _Well, this is awkward . . ._ "Oi, Kaien,"

"Eh?" he looked up from examining his right foot.

"Why didn't you just tell me? You said yourself that you're a reincarnate, not a Zanpakuto, so why did we have to go through the whole you-already-know-my-name-you-just-have-to-remember crap?"

"I actually never said that you know," Kaien replied, "but figures you'd ask a question like that." Kaien let go of his foot and patted the spot beside him. "Sit down— I'm gonna be doing a lot of talking, and we don't want to kill our feet." After Ichigo had taken a seat beside him, Kaien continued. "Do you want the long version or the short one?" he said, ticking each option of on his fingers.

"The one that makes sense"

"Long version it is then!" he said, pointing his index finger skyward.

Ichigo groaned, while Kaien laughed at his expanse, "Well, you _did_ ask for the one that made the most sense."

"Yeah, yeah I know, just get on with it."

"Ok, fine." Kaien held his hands up in front of him in mock defeat. Letting them drop down to his lap he continued "You probably already know that if a soul dies in Soul Society they re-enter the cycle of reincarnation, right?"

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah,"

"And Kuchiki's probably told you how I died, right?"

He nodded again, "Yeah,"

"Ok then, that means less talking for me! So, when Metastacia took control of me and fought Taichou, I was fighting for control, like you did the first time you met me. When Kuchiki came back, Metastacia targeted her and when the Hollow leapt for Kuchiki, right before her blade pierced me, I took control and died in the Hollow's stead—thus entering the cycle of reincarnation. With me so far?"

Ichigo nodded once again.

"Ok, so when I died, Metastacia became an occupant of my Inner World. Of course, I had already lost to Metastacia, so she was put in the control room, so to speak, although I _did_ have some say in what form she would take—thus me looking like your identical twin that got dumped in a bucket of bleach—when she decided to make herself known to you or more specifically, Urahara's abysmal way of getting your powers back _allowed_ her enough strength to do so. Sometimes I would wrest control from her, allowing you to defeat me and retain control of your body—" He stopped and laughed at Ichigo's gobsmacked look. "Come on, Metastacia kept bragging about how she was stronger than you, right? How else do you think you could have won? Oh, and before you say 'my resolve' I'll tell you another thing; I _am_ your resolve! You think about it, whenever you feel your 'resolve', your eyes become blue—" he pointed to his eyes, which were now a shade of aquamarine "—for a fraction of a second, and you suddenly know how to do a new technique you never even knew _existed_ before and get it perfect on the first try, or somehow get this massive power boost even when your reserves are practically rock-bottom! That was me! I'd make Metastacia shove over and I'd control your body for a miniscule amount of time, just enough to implant the new technique or power boost into your mind, and leave the rest to you. Monkey see, monkey do—in a roundabout way."

"Umm, I'll think about that later when I get over the fact that my Inner Hollow was a chick . . ."

Kaien scoffed, "More like 'grumpy old hag' if you ask me . . . in any case; you wanted to know why I never told you before, right? It'll be easier if you understand the whole concept so I'll give you the rundown of what happens to a soul when they enter the reincarnation cycle. First off, you lose consciousness, and when you wake up, you're in this black void. You're not really living so much as just _existing_. Trust me, not fun. You somehow know that you have forty years until you can be reincarnated—that's how long I waited, by the way, give or take a year—And although to most Shinigami forty years isn't that much time, when you can see nothing, hear nothing, taste nothing, touch nothing, smell nothing—forty years will seem like an eternity, for those who cannot enter their Inner Worlds. It's why only a fraction of the human race actually believes in reincarnation, because most incarnates lose their memories as they wait to be released from the void. Those humans that _do_ believe in reincarnation are most likely reincarnated Shinigami, or the reincarnations of reincarnated Shinigami, or—well . . . you get the idea. You also spontaneously gain the knowledge of what would happen should your reincarnation be a Shinigami or some other being capable of entering their Inner World, and you are discovered. Rule of thumb for incarnates: never tell your reincarnate your name. Why? Because if I was to tell you my name right off the bat, you would be overwhelmed by my memories—and in my case that's over two hundred years' worth of them—and in essence, lose your identity. You would _become_ Shiba Kaien; it would be as if Kurosaki Ichigo had never existed. Whereas if your reincarnate _guesses_ your name, you have the choice whether or not to show them certain memories—basically you keep your identity, I keep my privacy. Win-win situation on both sides. If you had been a Shinigami, it also means that they gain your Shikai's, and possibly Bankai's, abilities; so that basically means that you can use Nejibana's Shikai. I'm not too sure about Bankai since I hadn't achieved it before I died, but it means that once you go back out into the real world, Nejibana and Zangetsu will merge, forming a single sealed Zanpakuto, and I'm assuming that you know Zangetsu's sealed form, even though he's a constant release type?"

Ichigo thought back to his first days as a Substitute Shinigami, remembering what Zangetsu had looked like. Nodding, he gestured for Kaien to continue.

"Great! Now, I'll show you Nejibana's sealed form so you'll know just how awesomely spectacular your new and improved Zanpakuto will look!" Those words said, Kaien summoned the mirrored version of Zangetsu into his hand, and Ichigo watched in awe as the giant cleaver morphed into a standard sized Katana. The ito wrappings and the sageo cord were both a dark aqua colour, while the scabbard was polished ebony. The tsuba was the standard brass rectangle, with intricate lines symbolising the movement of water carved into it. Ichigo noted that the swirling water patterns were near identical to the flame patterns that had decorated the tsuba of Zangetsu's sealed form.

"This," Kaien said, gazing fondly at the sword, "is Nejibana. She wants to meet you, you know—although I must warn you, she has a very dry sense of humour, a dirty mind, and doesn't know the definition of privacy." Almost as an afterthought he added "And if you ever get into a romantic relationship with someone, be prepared for a running commentary of everything you do. Trust me; I had to endure fifty years of it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ichigo said, sweatdropping.

"Well, I think that's enough for today, don't you? You can come back later and I'll show you how to enter Nejibana's Inner World. Besides, unless my senses deceive me, your father is getting ready for his daily dinner routine. You better get outta here."

"Aw shit!"

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**Ok, so first chapter done. Regarding the scene where Ichigo spends all of ten minutes wondering about his Hollow's weirdness; I know that normally, things wouldn't move that fast, but you're forgetting that this is ****_Ichigo Kurosaki_**** that we're talking about here. Inoue. Hueco Mundo. Need I say more?**


	2. Chapter 2

**YES! I'M NOT DEAD! It's finally here, the long awaited second chapert of ****Death is Never the End****! For all those wondering why it took me so long to update, it's because of all the damn research I had to do to make this story believable. You would not BELIEVE how hard it is to find the right information on a single subject (=_=)**

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"Aw shit!"

See, here was the thing; ever since Ichigo had regained his powers Isshin had upped his game in the jump-tackle-son routine—nowadays, Isshin jumped Ichigo at every opportunity, with increasing creativeness in his methods, to Ichigo's great annoyance and horror.

Ichigo shot upright just in time to miss his low-lying father, who smacked into the glass of Ichigo's bedroom window. Sliding noisily down onto his bed, Isshin left an oily imprint of his face on the glass, much to Ichigo's dismay. _Great, now I have to clean my window again! _He groaned mentally. Whipping back up with lightning speed, Isshin glared at him and pointed an accusing finger at the teen. "Idiot son! Why did you have your window closed? If it was open I could have just turned around and walked back inside, but _nooo_ it just _had_ to be closed!"

"Are you insane, you damn old coot? Do you have any idea how cold it is? Besides," he added, "you're in a Gigai right now; if you airwalked you'd have to modify the memories of everyone in the street! I know you're crazy, but that would set a new record."

"Shinigami are durable." Isshin replied, deciding to ignore the last comment.

"I'm in my body!"

"Gigai are durable too."

"This isn't a Gigai!"

"Then get one."

"I'm alive!"

"No you're not"

"Yes I—"

"You're a Shinigami, aren't you? Pop quiz: How did you regain you powers after my wonderful third daughter was taken back to Soul Society?"

"Damnit you already know how: Geta-boushi dropped me down a hole and waited for me to come out!"

"Ah, but what did he do _before_ that?"

"Uh . . ." Ichigo paused, remembering what Urahara had done before he had up and thrown him down the hole in the ground. "He cut my chain of—oh . . ."

"Uhuh. Congratulations! You're dead!" Isshin cried, giving his son the thumbs up.

Ichigo threw his alarm clock at his father, a tick mark appearing on his forehead. "Don't say it like it's a good thing, bastard!"

"I'll have you know my parents were married before I was born," Isshin said holding his now bleeding nose. "And technically it _is_ a good thing that you're dead; it means that you're not a Substitute anymore—you can join a division!"

"Shuddap!"

Downstairs, Yuzu sighed as the sounds of a fight floated down from Ichigo's bedroom. "There they go again. Really, you would have thought that they'd fight _less _after that whole war with Aizen not _more_ . . ."

"Guess some things never change, huh?" Karin said around her mouthful of curry. "'sides," she said, swallowing and going in for more, "like I always say, 'more they fight, 'more food for us."

"And like _I_ always say _Karin_, that's mean and unfair and you know it!" Yuzu said, swiping her brother's plate away from Karin's reach. Said teen simply shrugged and continued eating from her father's plate, pointedly ignoring the withering looks she was getting from her twin. Another shouted curse from Ichigo and Isshin tumbling down the stairs marked the end of the Kurosaki pre-dinner brawl. It was a well-known fact that there would be another four brawls before they all retired to their bedrooms: the mid-dinner, post-dinner and pre- and post-bath brawls. Oh, and don't forget the now borderline traditional wake-up brawls, along with any 'minor' disagreements in between.

Unorthodox family traditions out of the way, grumbling, Ichigo made his way back up to his bedroom, this time changing into his PJ's (Which mainly consisted of his underwear, but hey, he was a teenage guy) settling down on his bed, he once again entered his Inner World, ready for Kaien to show him Nejibana's Inner World.

"Yo," he said as way of greeting as his Inner World took shape round him.

"Yo."

"So, are we going to do this or not?"

"Are you sure you want to? I mean, sure, Nejibana's an awesome Zanpakuto and all, but I wouldn't force her dirty mind or sense of humour on anyone— . . . oh, shut up, you know it's true."

"I'm assuming that was Nejibana?" Ichigo asked hesitantly

"Yep, and now she's pissed at me for dissing her personality."

"I thought you were supposed to show me how to enter Nejibana's Inner World, not have a conversation about her personality."

"Sheesh, impatient much . . . so do you remember the first time you came here?" Kaien asked, gesturing to the sideways buildings around them.

"Umm . . . the first time I came here was in the Shattered Shaft, when I was becoming a Hollow. Don't tell me I have to be on the verge of death or something, 'cause it's starting to get old."

"Ok, now tell me," Kaien continued, completely ignoring Ichigo's question, "what do you do when you want to come here?"

"I . . . well, I don't know," Ichigo shrugged, "I guess I just focus on coming here, and I just do?" He winced, _that did _not_ come out the way I was expecting it to . . ._

"Well, you got the gist of it at least." Kaien said, secretly glad that he didn't have to do so much explaining this time around. "Basically, all you have to do is concentrate on Nejibana, and pull yourself in, like you do when you come here—only, don't do it here; _that_ would just complicate things."

"How— no, wait, don't answer that. I don't need to know."

"What? How can I answer a question if you haven't even asked it yet?"

"Never mind"

"Hmmm?" Kaien hummed, raising an eyebrow as he gave a sideways glance at Ichigo, a sly smirk sliding across his face. "I bet you were about to ask how it would complicate things if you tried it here, weren't you?"

"I said never mind" Ichigo insisted, crossing his arms and looking anywhere but Kaien's face.

"Ha! Knew it!" he sang.

"Shut up, Kaien! And no, I am not answering that question."

Kaien pouted childishly for a moment, before sighing overdramatically "Ok, fine. You ready?"

"Yeah, let's do— hang on, how can I do this if I don't know what Nejibana looks like?" he asked, somewhat sheepishly.

"But you _do_ know what Nejibana looks like, I showed you before!"

"I know, but I . . . kinda forgot?"

Oh, alright . . . geez I know you're bad at remembering faces but Zanpakuto?" Kaien materialised Nejibana's sealed form once again, and Ichigo committed the sword's appearance to memory, before once again disappearing from his Inner World.

Outside, Ichigo took a deep breath, calming his nerves before he conjured up the memory of Nejibana in his mind's eye. Opening his eyes once more, Ichigo found himself in the middle of a black void. Disorientated, Ichigo looked down, and saw that he seemed to be airwalking, although he couldn't feel the familiar thrum of the reishi beneath his feet. Experimentally lifting his arm, he found that it was like trying to move though cold honey. The sword appeared to be a ways off, and Ichigo was surprised at how easy it seemed. _I just gotta touch the sword? Funny, I thought it would've been more difficult._ As he thought that, a tiny part of his mind, probably the part that held Kaien's personality, was screaming _YOU JUST JINXED IT YOU IDIOT!_ But he decided to ignore it. He wasn't the superstitious type anyway. Concentrating, he tried to reach out to grab hold of the Zanpakuto, but just as his hand came within a hairs breadth of touching the hilt, it disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. _I should have known . . ._ Ichigo berated himself as he once again tried reaching for the Zanpakuto, the outcome the same as before.

It went on like that for . . . Ichigo didn't know how long. Every single time his hand got closer, the further away the sword seemed. The monotony of it all was getting to him; many times Ichigo's patience nearly ran through, but each time he squashed down his frustration and focused on the task at hand. _I need to catch Nejibana. _He thought. _If I am to become stronger, if I am to protect those dear to me, I have to!_ With a last mental push, Ichigo's hand closed around the hilt, right before he felt himself falling. Feeling his heart leap into his throat, Ichigo plummeted, gravity having finally caught up.

The darkness was unrelenting, and as he fell Ichigo wondered how much time he had spent falling. As he looked down (or was it up?) he saw a pinprick of light, slowly growing larger with every passing second. Facing towards the light—_Man, that sounds corny . . ._ he cringed inwardly—Ichigo continued falling, failing to notice the Zanpakuto still in his grip.

As Ichigo grew closer he noticed that the light had taken on a blue-green hue. _Does that mean that I'm actually falling up? _He wondered to himself. Then suddenly, there was no more darkness. As Ichigo fell though the now periwinkle blue sky, he smiled—a large, genuine smile. _I did it!_ Ichigo's thoughts of triumph came to an abrupt halt as he took stock of his surroundings.

Blue. As far as the eye could see, there was blue. The darker green-blue surface that he was hurtling towards was rippling, almost as if—

"THE OCEAN?!" he cried, frantically attempting to airwalk, but to his horror, finding that he could not. Ichigo gave a (very manly) whimper. He could swim, quite well actually—a fact that he had always been quite proud of, but this place was no swimming pool; there was nothing to grab a hold of if he ever got tired. Furthermore, with the speed he was travelling at and the height from which he had fallen, when he hit the surface, it was going to feel like smacking into a brick wall. Bracing himself, he waited for the pain.

Moments before he crashed into the water, he could have sworn he heard soft giggling . . .

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**Yes, I know, insanely short chapter, but hey! At least I left a cliffy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yes! I finally got my act together and uploaded this thing! it's been sitting here for like, weeks, and I can't even pull the "I had loads of marking to do" excuse cuz we're over the first semester exam period . . . I'm sorry TT^TT I'll try and upload faster next time, promise.**

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The first thing he noticed was that the smashing-into-concrete-wall experience that he had expected never came. The second thing he noticed was that he was somehow dry, even though he was undoubtedly in the water. The third thing he noticed was that someone was poking him relentlessly in the cheek. His eyes flew open, zeroing in on the figure crouched beside him. With an impatient huff, the figure withdrew its finger and spoke, its voice clearly marking it as female. "I was wondering how long it would take you to realise that you weren't going to become strawberry jam, Strawberry."

Sitting up, Ichigo took in the other's appearance. She was a girl of around twelve years appearance-wise, with deep, ocean blue eyes and unruly chocolate brown ringlets tied up in a messy ponytail, strands having wiggled their way out and into her face, with a Nejibana flower stuck in the ponytail as a sort of pin. She wore a light blue yukata with swirling water patterns moving—literally—across it, and on her feet were a pair of straw zōri, along with white tabi. It was a strange mix of formal and informal wear, not that Ichigo was particularly bothered by it; in fact, he thought it suit her quite well overall. ". . . Nejibana?"

"Who'd you expect, the tooth fairy?" Was the snarky reply. Ichigo let his gaze wander was both relieved and surprised by the fact that they were both sitting on top of an ocean, but were not wet and that the ocean, was in fact, not an ocean at all, but more of a gigantic koi pond, complete with koi the size of a small car. _I guess I should have expected it—nothing is ever as it seems when it comes to Inner Worlds._

"No, it's just that well you're, well, not what I was expecting . . . I was expecting an adult . . ." he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you then." She sniffed indignantly. "But you could have told me if that's what you wanted . . ."

"Wait, you can do that?" Ichigo asked, remembering the drastic age difference between Zangetsu's Shikai and Bankai spirit forms.

"Yep, all I'd have to do is lose my virginity; then I'd technically be classified as an adult!" She declared jovially, grinning when she saw the fierce blush on Ichigo's face.

_So _that's_ what Kaien was talking about when he said 'dirty mind'_

"Er, no thanks, you're fine as you are," Ichigo said hastily, trying (and failing) not to blush at what she was implicating.

Nejibana laughed impishly at Ichigo's face. "Shut it Neji-banana." He snapped, a tick mark appearing on his forehead.

"It's NejiBANA!" she snapped back, her own tick mark appearing. "Ne. Ji. Ba. Na. Bana, not banana. Or are you implying something?" Nejibana said, her annoyed scowl morphing into a sly grin.

"Oh for the love of— Shut it!" he growled, an annoyed twitch forming under his eye, which stopped abruptly as a thought came to him. "Hey, do I have to fight you or whatever to be able to wield you or something like that?"

"You're already wielding me, genius." She said as way of a reply, pointing to the sword in Ichigo's grip. "I'm surprised you didn't notice it until now."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever; you can gloat about it later. But tell me, does the fact that I'm wielding you now mean that I can use your Shikai? All I did was grab hold of you . . ."

"Duh, it's called tag. And what do you think? Of course it does!"

"That was tag?!" he cried incredulously "What about the falling from the sky part? And how am I supposed to use your Shikai if I don't even know your release command?!"

"In order:" she stated matter-of-factly "yes, it was tag; I said so, didn't I? How am I supposed to know? You just randomly dropped from the sky, but Kaien just appeared . . . in the nuddy no less, so at least _you_ had some clothes on, but still. Maybe you're just weird. My release command is 'Suiten Sakamake'. As for how to wield my Shikai, you have Kaien's memories for that, dummy."

"Uh, thank you . . . I guess . . ." Ichigo said, awkwardly sweat-dropping. He then smirked and added "Neji-banana"

"Why you . . ." she cut herself off, settling for glowering at the orange-haired Shinigami, then abruptly relented, pushing away and crossing her arms "but anyway, now that you've met me, I can appear in Zangetsu's Inner World, and vice versa. But it depends on whose Shikai or Bankai you're currently using that'll determine which Inner World you land in. If you're not using Shikai or Bankai at all, the two Inner Worlds'll kinda smush together and you get a mix of both, with both of us there. Just thought I'd let you know."

"Right," he said as Ichigo pulled himself back to the corporeal world. Looking at his alarm clock (which had been salvaged from the previous day's fighting) he realised it was morning. 6:55 to be exact—which meant he had five more minutes of peace before the crazy old man jumped him. Knowing it was futile to try and go back to sleep, he lay on his stomach, hand resting on his chin, silently counting down the time until his idiot of a father burst into his room.

_. . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two—_

"GOOOOD MOOORNIIIIING IIIICHIGOOOO!" Isshin screamed as he burst into Ichigo's room, fist at the ready for his son's imminent retaliation.

_. . . one . . . _As expected, a vein throbbed in Ichigo's forehead and he punched his hyperactive father in the face, sending him out of the room and into the hallway. Slamming his door shut and panting somewhat from his sudden exertion, he brought a hand up to cover his mouth as he began coughing. He made a face as he felt something lumpy at the back of his throat, hurriedly swallowing in an effort to get rid of it. "Ow . . . what _was_ that . . . ?" Ichigo grumbled to himself as he turned around, ignoring his father's blubbering on the other side of the door. Irritably scrubbing a hand over his face, he grabbed a shirt and some pants for himself, yanking the items of clothing on haphazardly before wrenching the door open and stomping down the stairs. In case you hadn't noticed, he felt really irritable today for some reason, that fact making itself known to the rest of his family when he threw his chopsticks across the room when he couldn't break them apart on the first try, and again when he kicked the lounge because he couldn't get comfortable.

Growling out some choice words, he abandoned his breakfast and grabbed his badge. Shoving his feet into a pair of shoes, he wrenched open the door, intending to find some Hollows to kill so he could let off some steam. He barely restrained himself from punching a businessman in the face when he nearly bowled said man over in his hast to get to Karakura Park, settling for voicing a few more choice words and shoving the poor bloke out of the way. He broke into a run when his badge alerted him to the presence of a Hollow; the pitch was around middle ground, so it was of reasonable strength. A wailing howl tore through the quiet morning and Ichigo headed towards the sound, breaking out into a sprint in his eagerness to get whatever it was off his chest.

He found the Hollow, ironically, on the outskirts of Karakura Park. He was thankful that Rukia had taught him the basics of reiatsu control the last few times that she had visited, since it allowed him to pause and catch his breath. "Ok," he puffed, "next time, I'm gunna fuckin' Shunpō." His chest hurt with every breath, even though he hadn't run nearly as hard or as fast as he could have. His breath hitched suddenly, sending him into a coughing fit, the pain in his chest spiking with every cough. As before, he tasted and _felt_ something at the back of his throat. Balking, he spat it out onto the pavement and saw that it—whatever it was—was a yellow-brown colour. _That,_ he thought, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand _is disgusting._ Having regained his breath somewhat, he released a short, sharp burst of reiatsu to catch the attention of the Hollow in front of him, as well as any other Hollows that were in the area. He slammed his badge against his chest, not really bothering when he heard his body crumple to the ground behind him, although he knew that if Rukia was here she'd be yelling his ear off and his shins would probably be copping some too for his thoughtlessness. Giving a wry smirk at the thought, he launched himself at the Hollow, slashing at it with his newly-sealed Zanpakuto.

_Speaking of . . . _he thought as he slashed at the Hollow, then ducking so as to miss the low-flying appendage that he'd just lopped off, as well as a swipe from the Hollow's remaining arm . . . hoof . . . claw . . . thing. _I don't exactly know what to call the sealed version of the two of you. . . ._ It was a mix of Zangetsu's and Nejibana's original sealed forms; the scabbard was the polished ebony of Nejibana's, while the sageo cord was an electric blue, the same colour as Zangetsu's Shikai Getsuga Tensho and the hilt had Zangetsu's tassels. The tsuba had the flame patterns of Zangetsu running down the left side, while Nejibana's water patterns ran up the right. The blade was longer than a katana, while shorter than a daitō. The ito wrappings were Nejibana's deep aqua, although the wood underneath the ito wrappings was the same scarlet as Tensa Zangetsu's. _Overall,_ Ichigo mused, glancing at the sword in his hand and marvelling at how the light bounced off the blade, _it looks pretty kickass._ He smirked as he felt the smugness radiating off the two Zanpakuto spirits (granted, Zangetsu's was barely noticeable, but it was still there), his smirk widening as he sensed them both frantically trying to hide it, embarrassment now rolling off the two in waves. _That_ was the chocolate sprinkles on the cake for Ichigo; he could practically _see_ the two of them doing a damn good impersonation of a pair of ripe tomatoes, and, without really noticing it, he began laughing.

It was a slight chuckle at first, but then as his Zanpakutos' embarrassment grew, so too did his mirth until he was bent over double, holding his sides and wheezing for breath, a few stray chuckles still managing to squeeze themselves out. It felt _good_ to laugh like this; he hadn't done so for so long, he'd almost forgotten what it was like, what with his mum's death when he was nine, then the whole becoming-a-Shinigami palaver, breaking into another freakin' _dimension_ to rescue Rukia, then the war against Aizen, then losing his powers _again_, then that whole Fullbringers mess, then losing his powers _for a third time_ and _then_ regaining them by having Rukia stab him in the chest _again_ . . . well, let's just say he'd had a lot on his mind over the last three and a half years of his life.

His break was short lived though, as more Hollows appeared, drawn to the strength of his reiatsu. He sighed, straightening up as he turned to face his newest advisories. _Heh, they won't know what hit 'em._

As he landed after slaying the last of the Hollows, he realised with a start that he was actually quite winded, although he knew that before he had used the Final Getsuga Tensho, he could run from his house, to the park and back ten times over and hardly break a sweat.

_. . . Weird . . ._

_'Maybe you're coming down with something'_ Kaien suggested, giving a mental shrug.

_Maybe . . ._

_'You should get your dad to check it out, just in case.'_

_Nah, I think I can do it myself for the most part . . . besides, if I came to my dad for a check-up, he'd go running and screaming to mum's poster and wouldn't shut up about it for the rest of the week. I say find out what we _do_ know, and then work by process of elimination._

_'Since when are _you_ so smart?'_

_Shut your fly trap and help me figure this out alright?_

_'Fine, fine you win' _Kaien said flippantly. He paused, before adding_ 'Mind if you come in here? That way you can actually voice your opinions, and it's easier than doing it all in your head—if you get what I mean.'_

_Good point,_ Ichigo agreed,_ besides, I've been wanting to see how the 'merging of Inner Worlds' turned out; this is the perfect excuse._

_'You could've just _asked_, dimwit.'_ Kaien quipped, in such a way that made Ichigo feel like he was six again being chewed out by Tatsuki for not knowing how to do an upper-cut._ 'This is _your_ mind, we can't exactly refuse you entrance . . . well, we _could_, but you'd have to be as off your trolley as Aizen for us to go _that_ far.'_

_Yeah well I'm telling you right now that that won't happen. I may have power, but I don't want to become god—I don't need an entire dimension after my head thank you very much._

_'Ok, enough yapping. Get your ass in here; you're the one that wanted to do this so quit stalling!'_

_I wasn't stalling . . . _Ichigo grumbled as he drew himself in. Opening his eyes to his Inner World, he blinked.

He blinked again.

". . . What . . . ?" Ichigo stared; the sideways skyscrapers that he'd come to, well, not really _love_ as such, but that he'd begun to associate with 'home' and 'Inner World', were not so sideways anymore. That, and the fact that they were half-submerged in water—the same water, he noticed, that made up Nejibana's Inner World, giant koi and all . . . it was a lot to take in.

So caught up in his gaping was Ichigo that he failed to notice the figure sniggering to his left until they began laughing, jolting the teen from his stupor.

"Hah!" Kaien gasped, in between sniggers "You . . . you should have . . . seen your face!"

Ichigo just gave Kaien the deadpan as he waited for the ex-fukutaichou to regain control. "You done yet?" he asked after around five minutes of watching the man snigger.

"I— heheh, ok yeah I'm good." He breathed. "So, what's first?"

"Well," Ichigo said, suddenly feeling very self-conscious "I said it before, didn't I? We'll start by figuring out the different 'symptoms' if you will and then we'll see what we get."

"Let's get down to business then, shall we?" Kaien declared, plopping himself down on the ground and motioning for Ichigo to do the same, to which he complied.

"So," he said sharply, placing his hands heavily on his thighs, "I've been really tired lately for no apparent reason, so that would be fatigue; I was coughing stuff up this morning and a few minutes ago, so that's a chest cough, and that chest pain I felt when I was killing those Hollows earlier can't be because of the running I did; like I said, I should be able to run there and back ten times over and not break a sweat. I passed it off as a stich before, but I knew I could go further, which is why I was so confused. The pain came when I breathed in, as well as when I coughed, so we can add that to the list as well."

"And fever," Kaien added.

"Why fever?"

"Remember the night before last, when your dad broke the news to you that you've been dead since you were fifteen? You told him that it was too cold to have your window open. News flash; it's summer. The most you should have is a sheet, and yet you've been wrapping yourself up in your blankets like it's the middle of winter."

"Point," he nodded "so that makes fatigue, a cough, chest pain, and fever." He said, ticking each off on a finger. "That looks a helluva lot like bronchitis to me. Now all we need is for dad to confirm it."

"Well? What are you doing get your ass outta here!" Kaien said, making shooing motions with his hand.

Ichigo rolled his eyes as he brought himself back to the corporeal world. He realised with a jolt that he had been out slaying Hollows and spending time in his Inner World for the majority of the day; it was now late afternoon, he reckoned. Sheathing his sword, he headed back to where his body lay haphazardly on the footpath, thanking whatever gods were listening that no-one had chanced upon his lifeless body. Explaining to paramedics time and again that he was perfectly healthy and that no, he did not need to go to the hospital because there was nothing wrong, was annoying to say the least. Re-entering his body, he noticed that for some reason, it was slightly harder to do so. Sending a silent question inwards, he was slightly miffed when he received an all-round mental shrug for an answer. Chalking it down to the sickness, he made his way back home, all the while trying to figure out a way to ask his dad for a check-up without him running around like a headless chicken screaming gobbledygook about his son loving him. There was none.

Heaving a sigh in annoyance, he decided that he'd deal with it in the morning. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to climb into bed and stay there for the next ten years of his life; he could practically _feel_ the bags under his eyes. How they'd gotten there and why he felt so exhausted, he once again chalked down to his sickness _. . . god, I almost sounded like Ukitake just then . . ._

_'Just go to sleep Ichigo, you can barely keep your eyes open.'_

_Yeah,_ he thought, biting back a yawn as he approached his house, _yeah . . . sleep . . ._

He instinctually ducked his father's customary roundhouse kick, slipping his shoes off before trudging up the stairs to his room. Collapsing onto his bed, not even bothering to get changed, he slept like the dead, not even waking for dinner.

* * *

**Ok, so we're starting to see a pattern here, and Ichigo finally realises that it's more difficult to enter and exit his body, and now he's sick as well.**

**Nejibana's appearance is based on one of my OC's, Yanagi Ao aka Ryusei (another way the kanji (****柳青****) can be read) the only difference between the two is that Ao wears a forest green yukata, and is minus the tabi and the Nejibana flower.**

**To see what a Nejibana flower looks like, just look it up on Google images.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! It's me again! I'm still alive! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but as I said before; you have no idea how fustrating it is to search for something specific on Google only for the serch results to come up with everything BUT what it is you're looking for. That happened to anyone else, or does Google just hate me? =_= I've been going on memory for the most part (mostly symptoms and treatments and the timeframe) but most of it is a bit jumbled (I'm trying to remeber things from when I was 15 here . . . wow . . . nowI sound old TT^TT)**

**Ok, enough rambling and ranting from me, on with the story!**

* * *

_[He'd just graduated from the Academy; in fact, this was his first training session as a full-fledged Shinigami after leaving said Academy. He was on the verge of achieving Shikai, something that was highly unusual for a newbie like him, seeing as some of the unseated officers had been there for years and they still carried around Asuchi. Having Shikai alone was enough to get a seated position, the only thing holding him back from taking one was his inexperience. Once he got enough of that though . . . heh . . . those geezers better watch out, cuz even _Taichou_ admitted that he was bound to snatch up 20th seat _at least_. Like he said before; the only thing holding him back was his lack of experience, well, that and the fact that he didn't exactly have Shikai. _Yet_._

_He was going to fix that. _

_Everyone had split off into either pairs or groups although some, like himself, went off on their own to perform jinzen. Sitting down in a corner of the training field, he tried to block out the noise that the rest of the Thirteenth Division was making._

_. . . yeah, that wasn't working. Shooting the other division members a glare, he got up and moved further away. He wandered around a bit, not really looking for anything, although he did have a place in mind. He passed the dorms, the office building, the dojo, the loos . . . ah . . . found it. _

_It was a large clearing just outside the Taichou's office, almost as big as the training field, but not nearly as noisy. It was quiet, it was . . . relatively secret (seeing as Ukitake-taichou knew about it), and there were plenty of trees that he could sit in if he needed to clear his head. He'd stumbled across this place by accident on his first day, having nothing but a crudely drawn map to show him the difference between the office and the dorms._

**_~Flashback within a Flashback :D~_**

_He was near ready to blow in frustration; he'd been going round in circles for over half an hour. The Shinigami that had given him the map had told him that the meeting for new recruits started at five o'clock. According to the sun that had been an hour ago; he'd missed the meeting. He might as well just assign himself to another division; Thirteen didn't know he was here. _

_He crumpled the map, threw it away as hard and far as he could and scaled the tallest tree he could find, sitting as high as he could manage without having the branch snap under his weight. He gave a dejected sigh as he watched the sunset; he'd wanted to join the Thirteenth Division since practically day one; it was laid back and friendly, and the Taichou was an old family friend of his father's. Ukitake was like the kind uncle that came round to every birthday, or just to say hi, just because he could. He'd decided early on that it was that kind of person that he wanted to be led by, should he ever join the Gotei._ Well, that just went down the toilet._ He lost all sense of time, watching the sunset, but eventually he was found, by none other than Ukitake-taichou himself._

_"Hey there," he called, "did you get yourself lost?"_

_He stared at the sickly Taichou/family friend/uncle smiling up at him, unsure of what to make of it. "Don't worry, you aren't in trouble." He chuckled, "To be honest with you even _I_ sometimes get lost here; it's nothing to be ashamed of."_

_"But what about the meeting?" he replied, refusing to meet his eyes "I missed it, didn't I?"_

_"The meeting . . . ? Oh! You mean the meeting for the new recruits? But that's tomorrow; five o'clock sharp. You haven't missed it by a long shot young Shiba, but not to worry; no harm done." He smiled, and stretched up a hand towards him in an inviting gesture. "Come on, I'll show you where the dorms are. You have your number, don't you?" _

_"I . . . yes, dorm 7! Thank you Ju— . . . err, Taichou!" a grateful, relieved smile spread across his face; he hadn't missed the meeting at all, it was just some dirty trick an unseated member had played on him!_

_Still smiling, he jumped down from the tree, hurrying to follow the Taichou to the dorms._

**_~Flashback within a Flashback End :D~_**

_He smirked at the memory, looking out across the clearing from the same tree that he'd sat in before. Laying his Zanpakuto across his lap, he closed his eyes and tried entering his Inner World. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of it the night before, and was anxious to try and see it again. _

_He stayed that way for . . . he didn't know how long, but eventually, he succeeded, although, not in the way he thought he would._

_It started as a change in the air around him; something changed. He didn't know if it was the direction of the breeze that had been blowing, or maybe the lack of sound, but something _changed_. He didn't want to open his eyes at first, for fear of ruining his concentration and losing jinzen, but . . . how did that living world saying go . . . ? Curiosity killed the rat, or something to that effect. So he opened his eyes, and blinked._

_Black. That was all he could see. He couldn't hear anything either, or feel. The tree he'd been sitting in had mysteriously disappeared as well._ What in the four worlds . . . ? What _is_ this place?_ He tried moving, to find that it was nigh impossible to do so; it felt like he was trying to move through molasses! _Well, that's just great, _just_ what I need._ He grumbled internally, since he wasn't sure whether or not he could speak in this place. Just as he was about to try and exit jinzen, something flashed on the edge of his vision. Straining his eyes, he realised that it was a sword; an Asuchi. _His_ Asuchi. _How'd it get there?_ He reached out to grab it, but as soon as he got close, it vanished, reappearing a ways of in another direction. _What the hell? _He chased after the elusive katana in what seemed to be a game of tag in slow motion. After what seemed like hours, his fingers finally brushed the tip of the pommel. As soon as he touched it, a tingling ran through his fingers. With a jolt of fear, he realised that the tips of his fingers were disappearing. He tried to jerk his hand away from the katana only to find that he couldn't move. _

_He could only watch as his fingers dispersed, like sand in the wind . . . then his hands, and his arm._ Move . . . move. Move, _move_, MOVE damnit!_ But his traitorous body wasn't complying, obstinately staying frozen in place. He then felt, more than saw, his feet begin to disperse as well, then his legs and his hips. Suddenly, it sped up, swallowing his lower body in record speed, then his stomach, and his chest then his neck and finally, his head. The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes to a bright, periwinkle blue sky, with not a cloud in sight. Stretching his sight further, he noticed that he was somehow floating on top of an ocean, although he was undoubtedly dry. Gingerly turning his head, he found that he could, in fact move, and that whatever had made him move in slow motion was gone now too. A small, annoyed cough rang through the silence, making him whip his head around so fast he was sure he'd given himself whiplash. There, sitting on top of an ocean, was a girl._

_She had long-ish chocolate brown curls that she'd tied up in a messy ponytail, with some sort of flower stuck in as a pin. She was wearing a pale blue summer yukata with patterns depicting the movement of the currents moving across it, and had on her feet a pair of straw zori, although she also had on a pair of white tabi. She looked like a Shiba, if you disregarded the hair. He couldn't tell what colour her eyes were, seeing as they were shut tightly. And was she blushing?_

_"_Well?_" she said, "_Don't just lie there put some clothes on, streaker!_"_

_"What?" _streaker? _He looked down, and to his embarrassment, found that she spoke the truth. He was in his birthday suit. "I-I—Wh-what? I—" he huffed, "Well, I _would_, if I knew where my clothes _went_."_

_"_Here._" was the simple reply, and before he could ask what she meant, a pair of hakama was thrown in his face. He stared at them, wondering where they'd come from, before the girl's voice cut into his thoughts like a razor._

_"_Well? Don't just stare at them; they serve a purpose you know, put them on!_"_

_Grudgingly complying, he stood in his borrowed hakama and turned to face the strange girl, who by the way now had her ocean blue eyes open, and appeared to be no more than twelve. "Who are you? What is this place? And why was I naked?" he asked, all in one breath._

_The girl sighed, "_In order: one._" she held up an index finger, "_You get to figure _that_ one out on your own, sorry. Two._" her middle finger joined her index finger, "_This place, is your Inner World. You were performing jinzen before you came here, weren't you? Use your brain. Three._" her ring finger joined the other two, "_You're asking me? How should I know?_"_

_"Well, whatever. So, what's your name then? I can't keep saying 'hey you'."_

_"_My name is –––––––––._"_

_"What?"_

_The girl sighed in annoyance, before practically stomping over to him. Standing up on her toes, she shouted in his ear "_I SAID, MY NAME IS _NEJIBANA_! CLEAN YOUR EARS OUT DUMMY!_"_

_Rubbing the abused ear with his hand, he turned to face her. "So your name's Nejibana, eh? Does that mean you're my Zanpakuto spirit?"_

_"_Well _duh_, who else is going to be in your Inner World?_"_

_He chuckled, he liked her; she had the Shiba humour, and she wasn't even related to him, turning out to be his Zanpakuto notwithstanding. "Guess you have a point." After a pause, he continued, "So are you gonna teach me Shikai or something? I doubt you dragged me in here for a chat."_

_"_So you _do_ have a brain in there! Gee, you had me worried for a bit there . . ._" she mused, pointedly ignoring the vein throbbing in his forehead, "_but anyway, yes, I will be teaching you Shikai. Technically there's no real _teaching_ to it; I just tell you my release command and bob's your uncle, you have Shikai. But—_"_

_"So?" he asked, his excitement growing, "What's your release command?"_

_"_—_But_, I can't tell you directly. I'll drop hints for you, but I can't tell you outright._"_

_"Oh, bugger. Well, what can you do?" he asked rhetorically, shrugging as he sat down on the water. _I kinda feel like Jesus_ "So tell me about yourself, Nejibana."_

_"_Well,_" she began, drawing out the vowel as she sat down beside him, "_just so you know, the weather in this place changes with your emotions, so no secrecy on that front, I'm afraid. . . . Hmm, things about me . . . Oh! I absolutely LOVE koi; it'd be fun to have them as your information storage instead of the plain old rocks we have now._"_

_"Can I do something about that?"_

_Nejibana looked over at him with a 'did you really just ask that?' expression on her face. "_Course you can, it's _your_ Inner World isn't it?_"_

_"Yeah, I guess so huh? My bad,"_

_"_Nah,_" she waved a hand dismissively, "_I'm just trying to niggle you._"_

_"Oh, ok." He said simply, surprised by her choice of words. Mentally shaking himself, he continued. "So what else do you like?"_

_"_I like water obviously, especially waves. . . . Oh and the sky too, not that there's much else to look at around here, but still._"_

_"So you like water, waves, and the sky, huh? Man that almost sounds like a . . . catchphrase . . . wait a minute . . ."_

_He looked over to Nejibana who, coincidently, had turned away. _She did that on purpose, I bet. . . . Hmm,_ he turned away himself, trying to figure it out,_ water, waves, and the sky . . . waves . . . surge . . . sky. . . heaven is in the sky, at least, it is according to humans . . ._ "Suiten Sakamake . . ." he murmured._

_"_You forgot to say my name at the end, idiot._"_

_He jumped about a foot in the air, turning around to face the smirking spirit. "You mean I got it right?"_

_"_Yup!_" she nodded back, "_Like I said before, you just gotta add my name to the end, and then that's it._"_

_"Awesome!"_

_"_Yeah, yeah, I know I'm cool,_" she made shooing motions with her hand, "_now get outta here and try it out!_"_

_He gave a mock salute, "You gotcha!"_

_Then he blinked._

_He was back in the tree, his Zanpakuto, _Nejibana_, he reminded himself, lying across his lap. _Let's test this out then shall we?_ He thought to himself as he climbed down from the tree, making his way over to a dip in the land. _There. They won't be able to hear anything from here. _He was shifting his grip on Nejibana's hilt when a thought hit him: _Are there any moves that go with this or do I just say it?

There are moves,_ Nejibana replied, confirming his suspicions _but seeing as this is your first time doing it you'll probably stuff something up, so I'll help you.

_He raised an eyebrow._ Help me how, exactly?

Like this.

_Suddenly, the arm holding his Zanpakuto moved out to the side of its own accord, holding the katana parallel to the ground. It twirled the katana like a baton, gaining speed until it was nothing but a blur. Then, he heard Nejibana's voice in his head. _Now!

Gladly,_ "Suiten Sakamake," he watched in slight awe as the katana began to glow, elongating and changing shape, although it was spinning too fast for him to get a good look at it, "Nejibana!" with that, his hand stopped spinning the Zanpaku-to, which was now something of a spear. _No,_ he mused, gazing down at the weapon, _it looks more like a trident, but it _does_ have tassels, and there's a point at the end, so that would make it a cross between a trident, a halberd, and a spear? Cool! _It was only then, that he noticed the water now surrounding him. Panicking slightly, he pointed Nejibana's Shikai towards the dip in the clearing, only realising where exactly it was that he'd sent the water only after he'd done so, and could only watch as the water literally formed a lake. . . . In his Taichou's backyard . . . he was so screwed . . . _

_"What the . . . ? I don't remember this being here . . ."_

_He groaned mentally, just his luck that Taichou decided to take a walk. Well, there was no getting out of this one. He took a deep breath, and turned to face the dumbfounded Gotei Taichou, who was staring at his new lake with confusion._

_"Um, Ukitake-taichou?" he asked timidly, shuffling up to the man. "Err . . . well, you see . . . I-I was just—I didn't mean to—I'm sorry Taichou!" he shut his eyes, unsure of what his commanding officer would do._

_"Ah, I see, so you've achieved Shikai, have you Kaien? Well done my friend! Here barely a week and already with Shikai? You certainly haven't slowed down, have you?"_

_"You—you mean you're not mad at—at me?" he said, stuttering in his incredulity._

_"What? Of course not! I can assure you I made my fair share of mistakes when I first learned Shikai. In fact, I made so many mistakes I daresay Yama-jii was about ready to brain me with his sealed Zanpakuto at the end. Really," he smiled down at him, placing a hand on his head, "no harm done. Besides, I've always wanted a pond." He chuckled, "Although you may have overstepped the mark a little."_

_He laughed with him, "I'll be sure to remember next time, Taichou."_

_"Hopefully there won't _be_ a next time; one lake is quite enough, thank you very much."]_

Ichigo bolted upright, panting. _What the hell was that dream?_

_'That would be one of my memories, young Dandelion.'_

_Memories?_

_'Yep, remember our deal?'_

_Oh yeah, that's right._ He paused, wincing as a huge headache made itself known.

_'Oops, guess I forgot to tell you about that; every time I show you a memory, you end up with a huge headache.'_

_And you didn't think to _tell_ me?_

_'I just said I forgot!'_

_Whatever, _he looked over at his alarm; _it's not even five o'clock yet, I'm going back to sleep._ With that said, he dove back under the covers, falling asleep not a second after he shut his eyes.

He woke up again at around midday, somehow feeling even worse than he had several hours earlier. Cautiously opening his eyes by a millimetre, he squeezed them shut not a split second later as the noon sun hit him. Groaning as he felt the headache once again making itself known behind his eyes, he brought his pillow up over his head, trying to block out the sunlight that was blaring itself in his face. Finding that he couldn't go back to sleep, he turned over, away from his window, and took in the mess that his room was now in. For all that he had been practically running on autopilot as a result of sleep deprivation last he remembered, he knew at least that his chair had been upright and the books strewn all over the floor had been in a relatively neat pile at the end of his bed. _I must have gotten up to beat dad out of my room at seven_ he realised _. . . I don't remember that . . ._

_'Not surprising' _Kaien scoffed,_ 'seeing as you were practically sleepwalking . . . or would that be classified as sleep-beating-the-crap-out-of-your-father?'_

_Stuff it_

_'Where?'_

_Up your ass_

_'Oo, good one'_

Ichigo squashed down the smugness that had somehow wound itself into his annoyance at Kaien's unorthodox complement, refusing to let his past incarnation know; if he did, he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it, just like he wasn't hearing the end of Nejibana's needling about his not realising her blade in his hand until she had pointed it out.

_'You know, you might as well have a billboard over your head announcing your thoughts to the world, cuz you're doing a pretty half-assed job of trying to hide them.'_

_Shut up, I'm still half asleep._

_'Not if you can argue like this.'_

Never let it be said that Ichigo couldn't come up with a counter to that one. Instead, he materialised himself in his Inner World for the sole purpose of flipping Kaien the bird, before bringing himself back to the corporeal world, not even thinking to get changed as he trudged down the stairs. Plopping down on the lounge, he stared off into space, not really thinking about anything, just sitting there. _. . . Was that mark there before?_

". . . Oi, Earth to Ichigo!"

"Eh? What?" He said intelligently, blinking as someone snapped their fingers in front of his face.

"I said," Isshin drawled, rolling his eyes overdramatically, "your breakfast's there if you're feeling hungry." Ichigo blinked owlishly at the bowl of rice wrapped in cling wrap and sitting in front of him on the coffee table "Uhh . . . thanks?"

"Just eat when you're hungry," he said in an exasperated tone, making his way out of the living room and back to the clinic. Ichigo sat there, staring after his father, before realising that yes, he was hungry. Grabbing the bowl, and the pair of disposable chopsticks that had been set beside it, he unwrapped the cling wrap from around the bowl and began eating. But little more than halfway through his bowl of rice, Ichigo began to lose his appetite. Replacing the plastic over the bowl, he set it down, trying once again to figure out a way to ask his father for a check-up without said man overreacting.

_'Face it tensai, that's literally mission impossible for the guy. Just get it over and done with.'_

Heaving a resigned sigh, he heaved himself of the lounge. _Just when I was getting comfortable . . ._ he grumbled internally as he made his way through to the clinic, and finding his father loitering about in the swivel chair. "Oi, Goat," he grumbled as he knocked him on the head. Glancing away and scratching his cheek, he blurted "I think I have bronchitis."

_'Real smooth, Dandelion, real smooth'_

_Shut up! And will you knock it off with all the nicknames? _

_'No. Why should I? They suit you.'_

_They do not!_

Unfortunately, Isshin was too busy wailing at his late wife's poster to process his son's statement. A vein throbbed in Ichigo's forehead as he threw a plastic cup at his father, watching with slight satisfaction as it bounced off his head. "Oi, I said I thinkIhavebronchitis . . ." Ichigo repeated, mumbling the last four words.

"You think you have what?" Isshin said, abruptly snapping out of it.

"Bronchitis"

"Hmm," he said, rubbing his chin, "cough?"

"Check"

"Pain when you take a deep breath and/or when you cough?"

"Check"

"Fatigue?"

"Check"

"You made it pretty damn obvious that you had a fever a few nights ago when you said it was too cold, and when you put those four together the first thing that jumps out at me is bronchitis. Let me listen to your chest for a bit, see if anything's in there."

"There _is_ stuff in there" Ichigo said as he complied, lifting his shirt as his father pressed an ear to his back. "I've been coughing it up for days now."

"And you didn't think to _tell_ me . . . ? Deep breath. . . . What colour is it?" Isshin said as he shifted so that he could listen to the right lung.

"Um," Ichigo said, raising an eyebrow "that's a weird question, but it was kind of a gross yellow-brown—"

"Shush. . . . Thought so; go round to the kitchen take some Nyal and a Nurofen and some milk, then you can lie on the lounge. I want to take your temperature, and I'll be checking up on you as well—it'll be easier if you stay down here."

"Mm," Ichigo said simply, pulling his shirt back down and making his way over to the kitchen. Grabbing a Nurofen and a glass of milk, he measured out the flu medicine and found himself debating whether or not to knock back the Nyal first or the milk and Nurofen; either way he'd get a bad taste in his mouth. He sighed, deciding to take the painkiller first; his headache was on the verge of morphing into a migraine and that was the last thing he needed right now. After drinking the milk, he took the medicine cup that his father had swiped from Karakura Main the last time he was there, braced himself (ok, so maybe he was being a little over-dramatic, but then again; liquorish and milk weren't the best of mixes) and tipped it back in an attempt to limit the amount of mingling of the two substances on his tongue. Grimacing at the sweetness, he rinsed out the glass and refilled it with water, downed it, and then shuffled back around to the living room and made a bee-line towards the lounge, collapsing onto it and literally passing out not a moment after he'd gotten himself comfortable.

Isshin watched as his son slipped into a fevered sleep, his brow furrowed slightly in worry. It seemed as if the teen's immense reiatsu was starting to affect his human body; enough so that his immune system was shot through. It was nowhere _near_ the flu season, and yet Ichigo had somehow managed to come down with bronchitis. _With the way things are going,_ he thought, _he'll somehow manage to contract some incredibly rare incurable disease or something . . ._

_That boy has never done things in halves, that's for sure._ Engetsu remarked, his tone leaning slightly over to the sarcastic side.

Isshin scoffed _Gods no; he has to do everything in his power and _then_ some. He just doesn't know when to stop._

_Those kinds of people are few and far between in this world, now more than ever._ Then as an afterthought he added,_ Soul Society too, when you consider the Kuchiki's._

_Ehh,_ he cocked his head to the side,_ some Kuchiki's ain't that bad; take Rukia for example, and even Byakuya when he was a kid. Seriously, he had such a temper! I was sure he belonged in the Shiba clan—would've fit right in. Even when he became an adult, he still had at least partial disregard for the rules; I mean, he completely ignored anything and everything that those Elders of his told him when he married Hisana. His father too; Sōjun was almost identical to Jūshiro in regards to personality, he just didn't have the impulse to give out lollies to every Shinigami that appeared to be under the age of twenty._

_True,_ Engetsu acknowledged, giving a mental nod,_ but it _is_ a known fact that that kid of yours is like a magnet for allies. Take the Vizard, Kisuke, Yoruichi, Tessai, Jūshiro, Rukia, Renji, Shunsui, that Hanataro kid, the majority of divisions Eleven and Thirteen—_

_I get the idea . . ._ Isshin deadpanned

_Hmph, you're no fun these days . . ._

_I never told you the fun I had with the fireworks that New Year's when Ichigo was five, did I?_

_No_

_I'll let you sift through my memories then._ He grinned_ I guarantee you'll be eating your words afterwards!_

I'll_ be the judge of that, thank you very much._

His Inner World was void of any sound as he felt Engetsu digging into his memories. Just as Isshin was making himself comfortable on the arm of the lounge, his Inner World erupted into uncontrollable laughter. Giving a wry smirk as he picked himself up off the floor, he gave Engetsu a mental poke in the ribs. _I take it you found the memory?_

_Yes! _His Zanpakuto gasped in between chuckles _No wonder the kid's always wary of you at festivals! You just _had_ to use the Shiba special, didn't you?_

_Well, it _was_ my own invention, although I'm sure Kukaku has made her own alterations by now, she always _did_ like to personalise things . . ._

Engetsu sighed, all humour gone. _When are you going to gather up the courage to go and _see_ them again, Isshin?_ He said, his tone almost pleading.

_But . . . they think I'm dead . . ._

_They're your _family_, Isshin,_ he insisted,_ it's been too long since you saw them; you only found out about Kaien's death through Kisuke, who found out through Yoruichi. You can't keep doing this to yourself!_

_But what about Ichigo, and Yuzu and Karin?_

_Ichigo already knows them; he even knows Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko, Karin's known about Shinigami for a long time now, and she knows Ganju somewhat from the times he's visited Kisuke. And Yuzu? We both know what she'll do; welcome them with open arms. If anything, _that's_ what defines her Shiba blood. You need to stop worrying so much, besides, it'll be worth it to see the looks on Ichigo's and Ganju's faces when they find out they're related._

_Are you kidding?_ He said incredulously_ I wouldn't want to miss that for the world! Maybe I should bring my camera . . . hang on,_ he pulled up short,_ how did you know all that about who knows who?_

_Have you forgotten that Zangetsu and I are related as well or are the similarities in our names not a big enough giveaway?_ Engetsu drawled, sarcasm rolling off the spirit in waves._ We even _look_ the same; the only difference is what we wear and how much facial hair we have. All Zangetsu would have to do is take off the glasses, shave and tie his hair up and we'd look identical._

_Oh yeah, that's right . . . how does that work anyway?_

_Hell if I know,_ the Zanpakuto said flippantly_ what I _do_ know is that it lets the two of us communicate, kind of like how we are now. You could almost compare it to a telephone._

_Weird . . . but who am I kidding, that's practically the definition of Shinigami!_

_So, you'll agree to go and see them?_

_Yeah, I will,_ he agreed, _but not right now; I'll wait until Ichigo's dead, and go with him to Soul Society._

_Isshin, that's not going to happen for another seventy years, sixty-five if you're lucky . . . or unlucky, depends on how you look at it, but still—!_

_No, it won't. Don't tell me you haven't figured it out; this entire conversation started off on this topic; Ichigo's body is starting to give out. When it comes down to it, Ichigo's body is human; it's not designed to be able to tolerate so much reiatsu. His body was under pressure even before he used the Final Getsuga Tenshou, and now that he's got his reiatsu back, along with the added reiatsu of all the Taichou and Fukutaichou, his body can't take the strain. Eventually, it'll stop functioning. Ichigo will either be stuck inside his body, or out. Either way, the outcome will be the same._

_Why are you being so calm about this? We're talking about your son dying! Again. For the fifth time. _

_Death tends not to hold so much power if you know where their headed. It's why we Shinigami are forbidden to tell humans about our existence. Death to humans would lose all meaning; it'd upset the balance._

_Point taken, but—_

Isshin sighed. _That's enough of this conversation for now; I gotta get back to work anyways._ Severing the connection, he made his way back to the clinic, busying himself with checking stock and trying not to think of the implications involved if Ichigo were to end up trapped in his body.

* * *

**Yes! finally, some more action! Just a little heads up; it's going to get pretty slow going in the next few chapters, but that's only because I want this to seem as realistic as possible. **

**I forgot to mention last time, but Nejibana keeps niggling Ichigo in the back of his mind and saying things like "I can't believe my wielder is so stupid that I had to point out that they were wielding me" and "Seriously, is it _so_ hard to look down at your hand? You shouldn't even need to! You have nerves for a reason you know." And "Your brain must've taken a holiday or something, cuz it definitely wasn't functioning back there." And so on and so forth. When Ichigo told her that she could gloat about it all she wanted later, she took him seriously. I didn't put it in there because she keeps going throughout most of the chapter, and I can't exactly have Nejibana's dialogue every two lines, besides, she didn't stop when someone else was speaking either and their dialogue was pretty important to the plotline, so I had to choose. That and the fact that Ichigo, who is used to dealing with Keigo, automatically tuned Nejibana out.**

**Ja, ne!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! *waves* just to let you guys know, this story just underwent a MAJOR edit. I was rereading it and I noticed that I kept jumping between the English terms and the Japanese terms, as well as the English and Japanese grammar, so i just fixed it all up for you. If you want to go back and read it from the beginning again I'm not stopping you.**

* * *

Ichigo awoke two hours later feeling so under the weather that all he could do was groan, and then wince as the action sent glass shards down his throat. His head felt like it had been bashed with a lead brick, his ears were throbbing and it felt like someone had scrubbed his throat with sandpaper and then tipped razor blades and glass shards down it. In other words; he felt like shit. _I feel even worse than before, how is that even possible?_

Hearing his son's groan, Isshin went to the kitchen, grabbed the digital thermometer and made his way back over to where his son was lying on the lounge. "Oi, Ichigo," he said quietly, not wanting to incur the wrath of the sick teen. _Wuss_

_Shut up, I'd like to see _you_ try!_

_Are you kidding? Even _Zangetsu_ can't talk sense into him sometimes, and he _redefines_ composure and patience! I don't have a death wish!_

_Then you know my reasons._

Tuning out his Zanpakuto, who was prone to getting off-track, he refocussed his attention on Ichigo, who had yet to even acknowledge his presence. "Ichigo," he said again, brandishing the thermometer pseudo-threateningly, "come on buddy, you need to sit up for me, unless you want this thing shoved in your mouth . . ."

With an annoyed grumble/whisper, Ichigo complied, pushing himself up into a lopsided sitting position. He refused to pry his eyes open however, keeping them shut in an apparent effort to hold his headache at bay. Skipping past the instructions that Ichigo knew all too well, Isshin reset the thermometer and stuck it underneath Ichigo's arm, smirking wryly as the Substitute Shinigami wasted no time in lying back down, seeing no need for himself to remain (somewhat) upright. His amusement, grim though it was, vanished as he realised that Ichigo—_Ichigo_, was shivering. In the middle of the day, in the middle of summer. That and the fact that he was covered in a cold sweat screamed the word 'fever' at him in big, flashing, neon, capitalised and underlined letters. The only purpose the thermometer served now was telling him just how high that fever was. Sighing, he went around to the linen cupboard, grabbing a polar fleece blanket before returning to the lounge room. Covering the teen with the blanket, he watched as Ichigo latched onto it before cocooning himself, shuffling his feet around until the blanket was tucked underneath them as well. He retook his position on the arm of the lounge, watching his son sleep as he waited for the tell-tale beep of the thermometer.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long before the thermometer began its obnoxious beeping. Leaving his perch, Isshin lifted a corner of the blanket in order to retrieve it, but stopped short as Ichigo tightened his hold on the blanket, making it impossible for Isshin to get more than halfway down the teen's shoulder, let alone his armpit, in which the thermometer currently resided. "Ichigo," Isshin groused, "I need to get the thermometer, see if you need to go to the hospital."

"Why? You're a doctor." Ichigo mumbled, refusing to let up.

"Yes, I am a doctor but I don't have the resources or the training that I'd need if your temperature goes over 39°. Now let me get the thermometer."

There was a stagnant pause, before Ichigo gave in and loosened his grip, allowing his father to retrieve the thermometer. Isshin pursed his lips, looking at the little digital screen. "Well, it says here that you have a temperature of 38.6°; that's a low grade fever. . . . Geez with the way you were acting I thought it'd be higher . . ."

"Lemme 'lone . . ."

"Yeah yeah, I hear ya, I hear ya. I'm going to go get you a glass of water, ok? It'll be beside the lounge if you need it."

He got a grumble.

"Ok, I'll let you sleep then. I'll be in the clinic if you need me."

Isshin gave a steadying sigh as he left the room, scrubbing a hand over his face. _This is going to _kill_ me. I'm a doctor for gods' sakes! I know my son is dying, and yet I can't do a goddamn thing about it!_

_Quit your whining you big baby, at least he's not dying at the hands of some no-name hollow._

_Yeah, but then the "knowing" part would only last a few minutes at most, this . . . I don't know _how_ long this is going to take . . ._

Engetsu sighed, _Ok, so that didn't work . . . look, just take every day as it comes. Besides, you said so yourself that he's been dead for three years already; it's no wonder that body of his is giving out. And what was that little mantra that your University professor had you chanting like the damned? "If you can't cure them, make them comfortable" or something like that?_

_I hear you I hear you . . . doesn't make it any easier though . . ._

Engetsu metaphorically threw his hands in the air, _I give up. Come get me when you feel like coming out of that emo corner of yours . . ._

Isshin appreciated Engetsu's attempts to cheer him up, he really did, but Ichigo's nosedive in terms of immunity had dumped the severity of the situation over his head like a bucket of ice-cold water. And it was one thing to know it himself, but another entirely to tell Ichigo. He had no doubts whatsoever that after he told him the boy would slide into one of his funks and then it would take a drop kick to the head from his third daughter to snap him out of it.

Simply put, he wasn't looking forward to it one bit.

* * *

Ichigo silently cursed his substitute badge to the darkest depths of hell as the thing decided to go off just as he was starting to fall back to sleep. Worse still, the pitch was fairly low, so he couldn't exactly ignore it either, lest Kumo-something kill himself trying to deal with it. Feeling around for it in his pants pocket, he found it pressed it against his chest and exited his body, noticing once more that it was more difficult to do so. _'Watch yourself gaki, don't push yourself too hard; we don't want you keeling over at the drop of a hat because you over exerted yourself and made yourself worse.'_

_Overuse of the word 'yourself' much?_

_'Shut up, I was making a point.'_

_Yeah, whatever._ Ichigo replied, taking his advice and jogging instead of running or using shunpo. Luck was on his side as well; the Hollow was quite close to home, which meant less travel, which in turn meant less exertion, which then lead to him getting over this faster. Hopefully. Pacing himself, he made his way over to where the Hollow was. _Ok, luck is really on my side right now . . ._ he thought to himself as he realised that the Hollow had its back turned, which basically meant a one-hit kill. As he was sheathing his sword after a kill so easy an Academy freshman could do it, he realised that there was a reason why the Hollow's back had been turned. There, hiding behind a telephone pole, was a little boy, his chain of fate dangling from his chest and frighteningly short. He made his way over to the plus soul, instantly slipping into big brother mode, letting his scowl ease a bit and his eyes softening. "Hey there," he began, and then stopped, wincing. His throat still felt like it had glass shards embedded in it, plus, no sound was coming out. He tried to say 'my name is Ichigo' to test the waters, so to speak, but once again, nothing came out. _Well shit. There goes any attempt to calm the kid down. He's shaking like a leaf, and if I draw my sword he's likely to go running for the hills. I'd like to avoid scaring the not-so-living daylights out of him, especially seeing how short his chain is . . . _

_'Hang on,' _Kaien interrupted,_ 'look at his hands; he's using sign language.'_

It was true; the boy was making signals and motions with his hands, some of which Ichigo recognised from his signing class that he'd had to do in junior high._ Well that's perfect. Even if I _did_ have my voice, it wouldn't do any good. I don't know sign language._

_'Ah, but _I_ do.' _Kaien said._ 'It's one of the requirements in Shino Academy; you have to know sign because it's inevitable that over the years you'll eventually have to konso someone who is hearing impaired.'_

_Then I'll let you take the wheel; I just want to sleep anyway . . ._

_'That might not be the greatest of ideas . . .'_

_What, sleeping or . . . ?_

_'Your idea'_

_Why?_

_'Because if I was to take control of your body, your reiatsu would change and then everybody would come rushing over to see what's wrong.'_

_Ok then, how about you control my arms and I'll keep control of the rest of my body. That way my reiatsu won't change and I can still convince this kid that I'm not going to turn him into sashimi._

_'For someone who's half asleep with a raging fever you make a pretty good strategist.'_

_I had to be, if I wanted any hope of beating Aizen._

_'You have a point there. So, want to try it?'_

_Yeah, if only to get this over and done with . . ._ Without any further ado, Ichigo felt his control over his arms slip away, and watched with an almost morbid fascination as his right hand clenched and unclenched its fist seemingly of its own accord. Even though he knew it was Kaien, the thought of someone else controlling his body gave him the creeps.

_'Hey!'_ Kaien cried, sounding miffed_, 'Well at least I'm not Clown Face. Be grateful, Dandelion.'_

_You're never going to stop with those nicknames, are you?_

_'Nope! But enough chit chat; let's get down to business.'_

_The stage is yours_

_'By the way,'_ Kaien added, _'I'll be giving you my knowledge of sign language so that we won't have to do this every time we come across a deaf person. That sound reasonable to you?'_

_Mm, kay_ was the flippant reply

_'Aaand he's not listening'_

_I _am_ listening smartass, I'm just sleep deprived_

_'Whatever'_

As tired as he was, Ichigo watched as his own arms made a complicated series of gestures, few of which he recognised, while the boy responded almost eagerly, before nodding and coming out from his hiding place behind the telephone pole.

_'It's all yours now Berry. He knows what you are and what you're going to do; he wants to go.'_

_Right. Thanks, Kaien. _Touching the hilt of the merged Zanpakuto (he still didn't know what to call it) to the kid's forehead, he watched as a soft blue aura surounded the boy began signing once more, but this time, Ichigo knew what he was saying: 'Thank you'. That much at least, he remembered from junior high. Smiling, he replied, also in sign, 'You're welcome'.

And then the boy was gone, leaving nothing but a pitch black swallowtail butterfly in his place.

* * *

**I know, lame ending, but . . . meh.**

**For those of you who don't know; page break means timeskip. Also, I kept forgetting to put this in there, but about Ichigo's Substitute badge, Urahara tinkered with it while he was 'normal'. Ichigo can now tell the difference between weak-ass Hollows that he could kill with his eyes closed while doing a handstand, and menos class from the pitch of the alarm: high for weak and low for strong. The higher the pitch, the weaker the Hollow and vice versa.**


End file.
